A curriculum evaluation tool that helps teachers, leaders, and parents, determine if a curriculum meets high quality standards or not. 

There are two tools we recommend for curriculum review. These tools feel complementary to each other, so we recommend using both, starting with The Reading League’s Curriculum Evaluation Guidelines, then digging deeper into the knowledge component of a curriculum with the Knowledge Matters Review Tool. 

Resources

• The Reading League Curriculum Evaluation Guidelines 
• Knowledge Matters Review Tool 

We answer your questions about teaching reading in The Literacy 50-A Q&A Handbook for Teachers: Real-World Answers to Questions About Reading That Keep You Up at Night.

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Today we talk to educator and author Molly Ness about intentionally planning for read-alouds. Molly will share an easy to prepare protocol for a read-aloud in any grade level or content area. 

Resources

• Molly's Website - purchase her book! 

We answer your questions about teaching reading in The Literacy 50-A Q&A Handbook for Teachers: Real-World Answers to Questions About Reading That Keep You Up at Night.

Grab free resources and episode alerts! Sign up for our email list at literacypodcast.com.

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What is a read aloud?

It is very common to see early childhood and elementary school teachers reading aloud to their students. But what exactly is happening during this time? 

In episode 170, we talk with author and professor, Molly Ness about read alouds. We share her definition along with what to look for in a read aloud and the benefits of read alouds for all learners!

Check out Molly's book: Read Alouds for All Learners

We answer your questions about teaching reading in The Literacy 50-A Q&A Handbook for Teachers: Real-World Answers to Questions About Reading That Keep You Up at Night.

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From July 30, 2021

To connect with a practitioner lens, Duke (alongside Ward & Pearson) also penned The Science of Reading Comprehension Instruction. They ask the question: What have decades of research told us about the nature of comprehension and how to develop students’ comprehension in schools? Listen to find out!

We answer your questions about teaching reading in The Literacy 50-A Q&A Handbook for Teachers: Real-World Answers to Questions About Reading That Keep You Up at Night.

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What is dysgraphia? 

The American Speech-Language-Hearing Association defines dysgraphia as referring to difficulty with either language or spelling-based aspects of writing.  Dysgraphia impairs letter writing by hand, which can affect spelling, learning to spell words, the speed of writing, reading word recognition, comprehension, and writing processes and products. 

Resources

• American Speech-Language-Hearing Association Disorder of Reading and Writing 
• International Dyslexia Association Understanding Dysgraphia

We answer your questions about teaching reading in The Literacy 50-A Q&A Handbook for Teachers: Real-World Answers to Questions About Reading That Keep You Up at Night.

Grab free resources and episode alerts! Sign up for our email list at literacypodcast.com.

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Today talk to researcher Tiffany Hogan about language comprehension. We’ll start with the Simple View of Reading, exploring the relationship between phonics and language comprehension. Then we’ll discuss knowledge as the result of systematic and explicit language comprehension instruction and share approaches that work in the classroom - like read-alouds and discourse. 

Tiffany P. Hogan, PhD, is a Professor in the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders at MGH Institute of Health Professions in Boston, Director of the Speech and Language (SAiL) Literacy Lab and the center for translational research, implementation science, and dissemination for equity in CSD, (cTIDE), Research Associate at Harvard University, and inaugural research affiliate for the Boston University Center for Anti-Racist Research. 

Resources Mentioned in this Episode 

• ASHA Voices on Apple Podcasts
• On the Importance of Listening Comprehension  
• If you don't look, you don't see: Measuring language development to inform literacy instruction
• List of commercially available Developmental Language Disorder (DLDP) Screeners
• DLDandme.org
• RADLD.org
• Understanding Dyslexia in the Context of Developmental Language Disorder
• Increasing Higher Level Language Skills to Improve Reading Comprehension
• Adapting Curricula for Children with Language Comprehension Deficits
• Five ways SLPs (and others) can positively impact children with dyslexia
• A generic implementation framework for school-based research and practice
• 'We test, not teach, comprehension' Jeanne Chall: 
• CUBED free assessment and progress monitoring for decoding, language, and reading
• Executive functions and morphological awareness explain the shared variance between word reading and listening comprehension Young-Suk Kim 
• “the acquisition of an alphabetic code is like catching a virus… this virus infects all speech processing… Language is never the same again” Uta Frith 

We answer your questions about teaching reading in The Literacy 50-A Q&A Handbook for Teachers: Real-World Answers to Questions About Reading That Keep You Up at Night.

Grab free resources and episode alerts! Sign up for our email list at literacypodcast.com.

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What is Developmental Language Disorder, or DLD?

Developmental Language Disorder is a brain-based neurodevelopmental diversity - such as autism or dyslexia or dysgraphia. Students with DLD are six times more likely to have reading difficulties. DLD is a brain variation that makes it difficult to learn language from the environment. 

Resources

• New IDEA Guidance Includes Developmental Language Disorder as a Qualifying Category by Tiffany P. Hogan, Kelly Farquharson, Karla McGregor
• DLD and Me Educator Fact Sheet 

We answer your questions about teaching reading in The Literacy 50-A Q&A Handbook for Teachers: Real-World Answers to Questions About Reading That Keep You Up at Night.

Grab free resources and episode alerts! Sign up for our email list at literacypodcast.com.

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From October 7, 2022

In this episode, we talk with former balanced literacy teacher and parent, Missy Purcell. She authored a blog post titled Dear Balanced Literacy Teacher.

Missy writes, “According to Nancy Young’s ladder of reading, roughly 10-15% of kids can figure out reading out with this type of instruction, but my child, who would later be diagnosed with dyslexia, would never be able to become a proficient reader with any version of balanced literacy. He, according to Young, like 85% of students, benefit from or need systematic explicit instruction that follows a scope and sequence with fidelity to become proficient readers and writers.”

We want to normalize the idea that most kids CAN learn how to read with structured literacy instruction. 

Resources

• Dear Balanced Literacy Teacher 
• Looking for Heroes: One Boy, One Year, 100 Letters 2nd Edition
• These resources from the International Dyslexia Association are helpful to spread the word on social media about October as Dyslexia Awareness Month! 

We answer your questions about teaching reading in The Literacy 50-A Q&A Handbook for Teachers: Real-World Answers to Questions About Reading That Keep You Up at Night.

Grab free resources and episode alerts! Sign up for our email list at literacypodcast.com.

Join our community on Facebook, and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, & Twitter.

Nadine Gaab, Associate Professor of Education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, joins us on the podcast to talk about how brains learn to read. Reading development starts in utero because the fundamental milestones for learning to read are sounds and language processing. Brain research shows us the brain of children learning to read is different in struggling readers. Dr. Gaab debunks dyslexia myths and connects the importance of early screening and intervention for dyslexia.  

Resources

• Dyslexia Myths GaabLab.com 
• The Truth About Reading Documentary Trailer 
• How Can We Ensure That Every Child Will Learn to Read? The Need for a Global, Neurodevelopmental Perspective - International Dyslexia Association 

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Helping teachers learn about science of reading, knowledge building, and high quality curriculum. 

We answer your questions about teaching reading in The Literacy 50-A Q&A Handbook for Teachers: Real-World Answers to Questions About Reading That Keep You Up at Night.

Grab free resources and episode alerts! Sign up for our email list at literacypodcast.com.

Join our community on Facebook, and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, & Twitter.

From September 30, 2022

Dr. J. Richard Gentry, Dyslexia Expert and the “Guru of Spelling,” joins us on the podcast today to discuss dyslexia. Dyslexia is a specific learning disability, neurobiological in origin. It’s the #1 reading disability that manifests itself in a continuum. People with dyslexia have difficulty in accurate fluent reading,  spelling, and decoding abilities. Dr. Gentry shares his personal story of overcoming dyslexia, how dyslexia affects people, and how teachers can help students with dyslexia in the classroom. 

We answer your questions about teaching reading in The Literacy 50-A Q&A Handbook for Teachers: Real-World Answers to Questions About Reading That Keep You Up at Night.

Grab free resources and episode alerts! Sign up for our email list at literacypodcast.com.

Join our community on Facebook, and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, & Twitter.